The final Formula 1 practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix has concluded with victory for Kimi Antonelli, who achieved the fastest time, while Lewis Hamilton suffered an incident in the final minutes of the session.
Antonelli clocked a time of 1m45.990s on his first stint with soft tires, positioning himself as the favorite after half an hour of action on the track. This mark has been difficult for his rivals to surpass.
In an effort to improve his standing, Hamilton tried to match Antonelli’s mark with a final lap but suffered a crash similar to Pierre Gasly‘s during FP2; the Ferrari driver lost control at turn 13 and collided with the wall, causing significant damage to his vehicle.
This incident will pose a considerable challenge for the Ferrari team, which will have to work quickly to repair the damages before qualifying, particularly concerning Hamilton’s gearbox.
The session began quietly with little movement during the first minutes. However, the situation quickly changed when Hamilton was the first to break the 1m47s barrier with a time of 1m46.789s during his second lap on soft tires.
Max Verstappen and George Russell did not manage to improve this time with their initial attempts, but Antonelli did, placing himself eight tenths ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen, with a quicker second lap, was unable to surpass the Italian driver.
On a second attempt with new tires, Verstappen improved his time but still remained 0.148s behind Antonelli and was subsequently surpassed by Lando Norris, who managed to secure second place with a time of 1m46.129s.
After several attempts, Antonelli could not improve his mark any faster and canceled his next lap for going off track. In total, Norris, Verstappen, and Russell occupied the top positions behind the Italian, while Hamilton finished the session in fifth place after the incident.
Charles Leclerc also stood out, as despite an incident with Gasly, he placed sixth, and Oscar Piastri took seventh place behind his teammate Norris. The two Audi drivers, Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, managed to enter the top ten, with Isack Hadjar rounding out the list in tenth place.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
